The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation continues to support the production of films illuminating the scientific challenges and breakthroughs of our time, including three new documentaries supported by 2023 grants to WGBH Educational Foundation. This spring, PBS aired the March 26 premiere of Amanda Pollak and Gene Tempest’s THE CANCER DETECTIVES: THE TRAILBLAZERS WHO LANDED THE FIRST BLOW AGAINST CANCER and the April 22 premiere of Jamila Ephron’s POISONED GROUND: THE TRAGEDY AT LOVE CANAL, both as part of the Sloan-supported series AMERICAN EXPERIENCE. Ahead of the POISONED GROUND premiere, AMERICAN EXPERIENCE hosted a virtual conversation with U.S. historian of race and medicine Dr. Ameenah Shakir, author and cognitive scientist Dr. Cat Bohannon, and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Pam Belluck about the narratives and biases surrounding female bodies.
Later that spring, PBS aired the premiere of David Alvarado and Jason Sussberg’s NOVA documentary SECRETS IN YOUR DATA on May 15. Hosted by Dr. Alok Patel, the one-hour piece focused on the current prevalence of inadvertently sharing personal data online, and how to protect one’s privacy in the face of it.
Read more about these projects and find out where to stream them below.
THE CANCER DETECTIVES: THE TRAILBLAZERS WHO LANDED THE FIRST BLOW AGAINST CANCER. Dir. Amanda Pollak, Gene Tempest. The story of how the life-saving cervical cancer test became an ordinary part of women’s lives is as unusual and remarkable as the coalition of people who ultimately made it possible: a Greek immigrant, Dr. George Papanicolaou; his intrepid wife, Mary; Japanese-born artist Hashime Murayama; Dr. Helen Dickens, an African American OBGYN in Philadelphia; and an entirely new class of female scientists known as cyto-screeners. But the test was just the beginning. Once the test proved effective, the campaign to make pap smears available to millions of women required nothing short of a total national mobilization. THE CANCER DETECTIVES tells the untold story of the first-ever war on cancer and the people who fought tirelessly to save women from what was once the number one cancer killer of women. Available to stream on the American Experience website and YouTube.
POISONED GROUND: THE TRAGEDY AT LOVE CANAL. Dir. Jamila Ephron. The dramatic and inspiring story of the ordinary women who fought against overwhelming odds for the health and safety of their families. In the late 1970s, residents of Love Canal, a working-class neighborhood in Niagara Falls, New York, discovered that their homes, schools and playgrounds were built on top of a former chemical waste dump, which was now leaking toxic substances and wreaking havoc on their health. Through interviews with many of the extraordinary housewives turned activists, the film shows how they effectively challenged those in power, forced America to reckon with the human cost of unregulated industry, and created a grassroots movement that galvanized the landmark Superfund Bill. Available to stream on the American Experience website and YouTube.
SECRETS IN YOUR DATA. Dir. David Alvarado, Jason Sussberg. Whether you’re on social media or surfing the web, you’re probably sharing more personal data than you realize. That can pose a risk to your privacy – even your safety. But at the same time, big datasets could lead to huge advances in fields like medicine. Host Alok Patel leads a quest to understand what happens to all the data we’re shedding and explores the latest efforts to maximize benefits – without compromising personal privacy. Available to watch on the NOVA website and YouTube.
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